Cold War Safety

State Office Building bomb shelter, Augusta, 1981

Public buildings across the country included shelters, with signs at street level identifying them as such.

Maps published by the national Office of Civil Defense and Mobilization show four unnamed targets in Maine. Accompanying text notes that "our air and missile bases will be primary targets" and that the enemy "would try to knock out our retaliatory power. He might also try to destroy our cities."

The threat was close by and real during the height of cold war tensions.

While the concern about nuclear attack lessened after the 1960s, the state of Maine, like other places, continued to be concerned about attacks or disasters and created underground shelters to keep communications and government operations going.